More than any other thing, I can certainly be insightful as to certain aspects of La Diablesse in Verse, at least as to my deliberate intent. I can also make general comments in criticism, whatever the objective worth of such comments as ones coming from the creator of the piece. First, my general comments in some criticism.
To my mind, La Diablesse in Verse suffers from cleverness, even if maybe cleverness of the sort that is not all too bad; because at least some of the cleverness is of a sort that can be charming, and a useful device. The cleverness of the rhyming verse format can draw in for the moment required to focus on the wonder of the topic of exploration: A mysterious, devil woman of lore with interesting and other-worldly accompaniments, and powers. This sort of cleverness avoids the negative of the too abstract often begotten of the more than good, or of the great. Clever rhyming verse with La Diablesse at center is maybe a properly clever approach to such a subject of wonder.
Of course, I don’t make an assumption that obvious rhyming verse can’t pull in and then take to higher, but what I do say is that the piece suffers from cleverness even if appropriate cleverness because maybe it doesn’t elevate itself in the end enough beyond cleverness; at least to my mind. But in truth there are some at least thoughtful strands riding the coat tails of the subject, and a desire to explore it with a free hand and yet at the same time stay true to the lore.
The piece, though, does make promise of the possibility of more maturity to come, the fact or not of this realized only time will tell. As a related comment, safe to say that more moderately done might not be better, even if the area of unexplored or insufficiently explored material is much. But, now to a few mentions of thoughtful strands beyond cleverness.
La Diablesse in Verse does get top marks for incorporating all or most of the known, created or supposed lore of La Diablesse. For example, there is the non-descript mention in the piece of faint rattle, which can be of chains, or of dry bones, carried along for spells. This soft touch approach is important because my own view is that rattle, of chains, is more mainstreamed in the lore of such as Lagahoo, or Rolling Calf, and any association of this with La Diablesse is mere spillover, confusion not yet settled in as strong to the lore of La Diablesse. The truth is that we probably don’t yet have such as blazing eyes (again from such as Lagahoo, Rolling Calf, or certainly Sucouyant and Old Higue) associated to La Diablesse because this might be difficult to realize with large hat, or veil. But this is the way of such things.
On the other side of this issue, there is a deliberate choice made in La Diablesse in Verse as to the certainty of La Diablesse floating on air, but this is not an unreasonable creative conclusion give that she is thought to be always just out of reach and seemingly to float on air. And a conclusion as to floating on air is certainly a softer literary sell in the piece than the space, time or dimension bending choices that might be of science fiction preference.
Modern tellers of La Diablesse lore might like such upgrades as a car following La Diablesse, always just out of reach ahead, and often avoid the older stated conventions of locale such as cane and cocoa fields, or of gatherings with assumptions that walking home after will be the norm. All of this is skillfully avoided in La Diablesse in Verse with just a focus on the warning: not to succumb to temptation, not to follow.
There is a potential of too much of a focus on La Diablesse the temptress, but maybe this is a logical, literary conclusion. What else is her raison d’être? And, while I’ve embraced fully the offering by some that this she-devil is different, and more dangerous, because she does not need the cloak of night for her wiles, I’ve just plain ignored any offering that turning ones clothes inside out can stop her. She is, to my mind, not a hunter, but a seducer to lead the seduced to their end; stopping her just means not succumbing to the temptation of her seduction; and so spillover again from such as Sucouyant and Old Higue would seem unnecessary.
Finally, it seemed a reasonable choice to focus on the higher wage of death as penalty for succumbing to the temptress La Diablesse, and so to avoid force feeding the piece with lesser wages such as the madness of the seduced.
La Diablesse in Verse wins overall for its clever thoughtfulness, and for good expression rooted in an understanding and an appreciation of the lore of La Diablesse.
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